Social Technologies LLC v. Apple Inc.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC, Case No. 18-cv-05945-VC

Plaintiff,

ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR

v. ATTORNEY’S FEES

APPLE INC., Re: Dkt. No. 162 Defendant.

Apple moves for attorney’s fees under the Lanham Act, which provides that courts in “exceptional” trademark cases “may award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party.” 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a). Under this totality-of-the-circumstances standard, an “exceptional” case is “one that stands out from others with respect to the substantive strength of a party’s litigating position (considering both the governing law and the facts of the case) or the unreasonable manner in which the case was litigated.” Octane Fitness, LLC v. ICON Health & Fitness, Inc., 572 U.S. 545, 554 (2014); see SunEarth, Inc. v. Sun Earth Solar Power Co., 839 F.3d 1179, 1181 (9th Cir. 2016) (en banc) (per curiam). Whether to award fees in this case is an exceedingly close question, because Social Tech’s behavior comes close to crossing the line into exceptional territory. As any reasonable jury would have been compelled to find, Social Tech cobbled…